The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for distributing pharmaceuticals. More particularly it relates to systems, methods, and related devices for preparing and shipping an inventory of different, pre-packaged pharmaceutical items (e.g., prescription and non-prescription medications) from a primary distributor to a secondary seller of the items, such as a retail pharmacy or a mail-order pharmacy.
Primary distributors or distribution centers commonly facilitate distribution of pharmaceutical items from a manufacturer to a secondary seller (“retail seller”). By way of background, a typical pharmaceutical distribution methodology entails the primary distributor warehousing significant quantities of a large number of different, pre-packaged medications or other pharmaceutical items made by various manufacturers. Retail sellers ultimately sell at least some of these items to patients, and thus desire to have a small amount of a number of medications on-hand (or in stock) at all times. It will be understood that the number of manufacturers involved and the relatively small quantities needed render it highly impractical for a retailer seller to order directly from a manufacturer. Thus, the retail seller periodically orders various quantities of some of the pre-packaged pharmaceutical items offered by the primary distributor in volumes commensurate with actual or expected sales. In this regard, retail sellers commonly maintain their in-house stock or small inventory of packaged pharmaceutical items at an on-site shelving system, consistently storing the particular medications/formats on the shelves in a designated, retail seller-specific order.
While retail sellers may sell more of some medications as compared to others, pharmaceutical item orders placed with the primary distributor essentially always include a number of different pharmaceutical types, as well as different formats (e.g., a single order from a retail seller to a primary distributor can include twenty packages of medication product A in 100 mg tablet form, forty packages of medication product A in 500 mg capsule form, thirty packages of medication product B, twenty-five packages of medication product C, etc.). As a point of reference, certain retail sellers (e.g., mail-order pharmacies) may fill in upwards of 20,000 prescriptions per day, and thus will order significant quantities from the primary distributor. Regardless, upon receiving an order, employees of the primary distributor “fill” the order by preparing one or more boxes or “totes” with requested quantities of each pharmaceutical item/format. The totes are typically of a standard size and can hold a fairly large number of individual, packaged pharmaceutical items. For many retail sellers, however, a single tote is not large enough to hold all ordered products. Under these circumstances, the primary distributor will prepare or fill a series of totes to meet the retail seller's order. Some of the totes may contain only a single type of medication; others will contain a plurality of different pharmaceuticals/formats. The filled totes are banded to a skid and then shipped to the retail seller.
For certain retail sellers, the primary distributor will have a general understanding of the designated areas or order the retail seller stores its on-site supply of pharmaceuticals, and thus will attempt to generally organize/label the totes in accordance with the expected shelving location. For example, the retail seller may have three lines or rows of shelves, with pharmaceutical items A-F stored in the first line of shelves; pharmaceutical items G-N stored in the second line of shelves; and pharmaceutical items P-Z stored in the third line of shelves. Under these circumstances, the primary distributor will endeavor to place pharmaceutical items A-F in a series of totes that are each labeled “Shelves 1” (or similar designation); pharmaceutical items G-N in one or more totes each labeled “Shelves 2”; and pharmaceutical items P-Z in one or a series of totes each labeled “Shelves 3”.
Regardless of whether the totes are loaded in accordance with general shelving designations assigned by the retail seller, upon receiving a shipment from the primary distributor, the retail seller's employees must un-band the totes from the skid, open each tote to confirm content, and then remove all packaged pharmaceuticals from the totes. The removed packaged products are then placed on an open, wheeled cart in a somewhat ordered fashion. More particularly, the retail seller's employee will likely be aware of the pre-designated ordering of pharmaceutical products along the retail seller's shelving system. With this in mind, the employee may attempt to load the individual, packaged pharmaceutical items onto the open cart in a manner generally corresponding with the shelving system order. For example, all medication products stored in the first line of shelves are placed onto one cart, all medication products stored in the second line of shelves are placed onto a second cart, etc. From this point, the retail seller's employee wheels the cart along the designated line of shelves, removing pharmaceutical items from the cart and placing them at appropriate locations along the shelving system. This can be a time consuming task as the items are often randomly arranged on the cart, requiring the worker to repeatedly move back-and-forth along the shelves.
While widely used, the current methodologies for distributing pharmaceuticals from a primary distributor to a retail seller (especially a high volume retail seller, such as a mail order pharmacy) necessitate that the packaged pharmaceuticals be handled several times, and require that the retail seller perform a number of processing steps. The time required for the retail seller's employees to unload the shipped pallet and then re-load individual carts may lead to undesirable stock out issues. Further, the emptied totes are accumulated at the retail seller's site, and must be returned to the primary distributor.